{"id":27182,"date":"2016-03-09T09:10:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T14:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=27182"},"modified":"2016-07-19T11:21:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T15:21:49","slug":"conversations-on-sexual-violence-symposium-aims-to-nurture-community-building-and-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/conversations-on-sexual-violence-symposium-aims-to-nurture-community-building-and-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Conversations on Sexual Violence’ symposium aims to nurture community-building and resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"

A multi-year research project on domestic violence, under the direction of professor Carolyn Stauffer<\/a>, will be highlighted in a community education symposium at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) this spring. The March 19 symposium, \u201cConversations on Sexual Violence: Cultivating Community Resilience,\u201d focuses on both preventative education and \u201cpost-traumatic growth,\u201d according to Stauffer, with the aim of \u201ccreating deeper awareness of resilience strategies for both individuals and communities in response to intimate partner violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event \u2014 which includes speakers and interactive arts-based opportunities for reflection, learning and healing \u2014 is Saturday, March 19, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in EMU\u2019s Suter Science Center. It is free and open to the public as well as the campus community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual violence doesn\u2019t just impact individuals,\u201d Stauffer says. \u201cIt is a breach of relationship. How can we rebuild community in the face of violence? If we can build toward a healthier definition of community, I think we\u2019ll all feel safer and provide an environment for profound healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stauffer\u2019s project, titled \u201cSilent Violence<\/a>,\u201d began in 2012 with research among domestic abuse survivors from within communities of homeless women, undocumented Latinas and Mennonite women from Old Order or conservative church communities. Stauffer employed a strengths-based approach, with particular focus on the resilient ways in which women survive in spite of gaps in societal support networks. Her project employed strategies that empowered study participants, integrating storytelling interviews with circle processes and healing arts workshops.<\/p>\n

Last spring, MA in biomedicine students were integrated into the project with a two-day seminar<\/a> about adverse childhood experience. Most of the students are future health care providers, and the experience asked them to reflect on the symptomatic and diagnostic implications of personal narratives as they participated in storytelling, communication activities and playback theater events with co-facilitators, some of whom were domestic abuse survivors.<\/p>\n

Stauffer and the planning committee have included some of these same components in the symposium, she says. \u201cThis is an interdisciplinary event with planning, support and participation coming from various groups and departments across campus,\u201d she added, the representation of which is important to the idea of both community response and support.<\/p>\n

Plenary presenters include Johonna Turner<\/a>, assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and University of Notre Dame doctoral researcher Sheila McCarthy. Turner will speak on \u201cHealing in Community\u201d and McCarthy on \u201cSexual Violence through the Lens of Moral Injury.\u201d Angela Carter<\/a>, an EMU graduate whose published writing has explored her identity as a survivor of sexual abuse, will share her poetry. Inside Out, a campus theater group which has also participated in other parts of Stauffer\u2019s multidisciplinary project, will host a session on the innovative and healing art of playback theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this type of witness moves our peace stance from the rubric of a privatized individual journey to a much more collective awareness of the church\u2019s role in embodying the challenge to \u2018speak truth\u2019 to abuses of power,\u201d Stauffer says. \u201cIt invites us as a community of faith to higher levels of transparency, truth and grace for all parties involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afternoon breakout sessions in two 90-minute blocks options provide attendees with a variety of options, including:<\/p>\n